Thursday, 13 July 2017

A Vital Contribution

Brexiteers are incandescent that Jeremy Corbynis due to hold talks next week in Brussels with the EU’s trade negotiator Michel Barnier.

They
are convinced that despite voting in the Commons to trigger Article 50 to begin
Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, the Labour Leader secretly wishes to sabotage Brexit.

The
argument runs that, by following this course, he hopes to destroy Theresa May’s government and move into No 10 himself.

It’s
Monsieur Barnier, of course, a former French government minister, who is a
thorn in Mrs May’s side, having preposterously proclaimed that Britain will
have to pay a £50billion divorce settlement.

Although many Tory Brexiteers detect a conspiracy between Corbyn and Brussels
bigwigs to undermine Mrs May, I believe they have badly misread the intentions
of the Labour Leader.

But, as some in the Tory party traitorously plot against a
gravely weakened PM amid irresponsible talk of possible successors and
stalking-horses, the truth is that Corbyn could well make a vital contribution
to the Brexit negotiations.

He is on record in recent months as having said the referendum result was ‘a
clear vote’ and has stressed his determination to get a ‘good deal with
Europe’.

Indeed,
currently the most popular politician in Britain — with a YouGov/Times poll
yesterday giving Labour an eight-point lead over the Conservatives — he feels
he has an increasing amount of authority to ensure Brexit happens.

There
is a bigger irony here.

In last month’s General Election, thousands of
Remainers voted for Labour in the hope that if elected PM, Corbyn might
overturn the referendum result or instigate a second vote.

The
fact is that, at heart, Corbyn is much more critical of the EU than Theresa May
— or many other members of the Cabinet.

The Labour leader has a long record of opposition to the Brussels-driven
project for a European superstate.

In
the 1975 referendum, like so many left-wingers, he voted for Britain to leave
what was then the Common Market.

He then opposed the Maastricht Treaty that, 25
years ago, significantly extended the power of Brussels and laid the
foundations for the EU becoming a superstate as it removed sovereign powers from
individual member governments.

Similarly,
as a backbencher, Corbyn defied his party leader Tony Blair and opposed the
Lisbon Treaty which created the constitutional framework for today’s EU.

Before becoming Leader, he denounced the ‘EU’s ever-limiting powers for
national parliaments and an increasingly powerful common foreign and security
policy’.

Despite
such a long and proud history of Euroscepticism, when he was elected to lead
the party, he felt forced to join the Remain campaign.

This was simply because
he could not change the minds of the substantial majority of EU-worshipping
Labour MPs. (Last year, more than 200 of the party’s 231 MPs were in favour of
staying in the EU.)

Even
so, Corbyn was conspicuous by his low profile during the EU referendum campaign
in 2016.

However,
now, with the Tories in turmoil and sensing blood, Corbyn has the opportunity
to make mischief, manoeuvre himself closer to No 10 and express his true
reservations about the EU.

Evidence
of this has been seen in the way he has ruthlessly treated Labour’s
high-profile Remainers.

Last
week he sacked three pro-European shadow ministers for defying the party whip
and backing a Commons amendment by Blairite MP Chuka Umunna calling for Britain
to stay in the Single Market, in direct contravention of official Labour
policy.

With
the menacing [oh, puh-lease, have you met them?] support of the grassroots movement Momentum, which is plotting to
deselect moderate [compared to what?] Labour MPs, Corbyn has made it clear he’s willing to
discipline any parliamentary rebels.

In his sights are the 49 who joined the
anti-Brexit Commons revolt against his Leadership.

Meanwhile,
in a fascinating separate development, I understand that, two weeks ago, a
group of senior businessmen who met a close union ally of Corbyn in the hope of
convincing him of the case for a watered-down Brexit were sent away with a flea
in their ear.

Of
course, the reasons why Corbyn supports Brexit are not the same as why Tory
Leavers loathe the EU.

While the latter can’t wait to restore powers to Westminster, regain control of
our borders, ditch the European Court of Human Rights etc, Corbyn sees the EU
as a capitalist, free market organisation that discriminates against working
men and women.

Also,
the Labour Leader fears that Brussels rules — such as those governing free
markets, opposing state control and banning the seizing of private assets —
could prevent him putting a socialist programme into practice if ever he became Prime Minister.

And
so, regardless of the myriad reasons for his dislike of the EU, I believe that
Corbyn’s support is absolutely crucial to the success of Brexit negotiations.

This is particularly the case at a time the Tory Party is convulsed by a brutal
battle between MPs who want a ‘soft’ Brexit — with continued membership of the
Single Market trading arrangements — and hard Brexiteers who believe the UK can
flourish without any vestigial EU ties.

As
Mrs May struggles to regain authority, it is the duty of the leader of Her
Majesty’s Opposition to step up and do the right thing by this country.

How
ironic it would be if Brexit — with this country re-established as a truly
independent, self-governing nation — was achieved thanks to the influence of
Jeremy Corbyn, rather than the efforts of Right-wing free-marketeers such as
Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and Nigel Farage.Well, not really, for all the reasons already set out. Johnson, in particular, wrote both a Leave column and a Remain column for the Telegraph, and more or less tossed a coin as to which one to submit.